Hi every one.I got a question that has been a matter of discussion for me and my friends. The question is: do we need to use THE before abbreviations of institutes/universities and ...such as UCLA(or THE UCLA?),UNICEF(or THE UNICEF),....

Generally, the rule is that if we pronounce each letter, we use "the." When the acronym is pronounced like a word, no "the". But universities seem to be an exception: we don't use "the" (but I'm not sure why).